Pål A.
Bertnes is the Director of the Law Library (Law School Library) at
The Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo. As an author, editor and
publisher of books and articles and as a lecturer, his main professional
interests have been related to matters concerning remedies for the retrieval of
sources of law. The list of his publications is available
online.

1.1 Norwegian Law. Some Main Historical Points

Norway united as one Kingdom at the end of the 9th century.
Until then, the country had consisted of several regional kingdoms, each with
its own legal system. At that time, a proper administration of justice took
place at the Althing, which was a general assembly of representatives from the
rural community or the larger community units.

The Lagting was established during the middle of the tenth
century and was a National representative organ constituted of regional
representatives. The Lagting exercised legislative, executive and
judiciary power within its section of the realm. Gradually the court, Lagrett,
developed out of the Lagting. It wielded the judiciary power and was
constituted of select Lagting members.

Written laws first appeared in the 12th
century. The oldest codes of law known to us date from the 12th and 13th
centuries, and are known as landsskapslovene (Regional laws).

In 1274 King Magnus Lagabøte (Magnus the Law Mender)
compiled and revised the Regional law codifications into a National code,
called Landslov or Magnus Lagabøtes Lov. The corpus of King Magnus
Lagabøte's law remained the governing law for more than 400 years.

The King possessed legislative power prior to the enactment
of the Landslov, and he continued to exercise this power during Norway's union
with Denmark from 1380. A revised version of the National Code was translated
from Old Norse to Danish in 1604 and renamed (King) Christian IV's Norwegian
Law. This law incorporated most of the provisions issued by previous kings.

In 1687, a new comprehensive code was provided in Christian
V's Norwegian Law, incorporating Danish law to a considerable extent. However,
unlike the legislation of many other countries at the time, Danish law was not
heavily influenced by Roman law. Some of the provisions of Christian V's
Norwegian Law still remain in force.

The Norwegian Constitution was adopted at Eidsvoll in 1814,
and was the result of events in Europe. At the Treaty of Kiel in 1814, the King
of Denmark/Norway was forced to renounce his rights to Norway to the King of
Sweden, granting him full sovereign powers. However, § 1 of the Norwegian
Constitution provides that "The Kingdom of Norway is a free, independent
and indivisible realm". In other words: Norway submitted to a union with
Sweden as a sovereign nation. The union with Sweden ended in 1905 when Norway
became an independent constitutional monarchy.

The governing ideas behind the Norwegian constitution were
largely the result of influence by English and French political philosophers
(Locke, Montesquieu and Rousseau), as well as the constitutions of France and
the USA. The Norwegian Constitution contains a similar division of power between
the executive King/Government, legislative Storting
(Parliament) and judiciary (the courts, in particular the Supreme Court) as in the American
Constitution. The development in Norway has however been very different from
that of the USA. The constitutional situation today, in brief, is that
Stortinget passes laws and the Government wields executive power. However,
since parliamentary rule developed as customary constitutional law during the
late 19th century, the Government is now dependent on support from the
Storting.

The main function of the courts is obviously to solve
disputes, but in addition, the Supreme Court has constitutional review and,
with the system of case law and judicial precedents, is also an important
interpreter of statute and custom law.

The Norwegian legal system is primarily built on an outgrowth
of National roots, correspondent to the other Nordic countries (Sweden,
Denmark, Finland and Iceland). The historical development of these countries is
similar, particularly within the field of law, but other legal systems have
also left their mark.

Influence from Anglo-American law is mostly limited to
criminal procedure and to criminal remedies. EC law has become an important
part of Norwegian law, in particular after EØS (The European Economic Area
(EEA) Agreement) was incorporated into Norwegian law in November 1992. EC
directives are now implemented through Acts passed by the Storting or by
Government regulations.

1.2 The Courts of Justice

The development of the court system is too diverse to be
addressed in detail in this presentation. However, it is important to notice
that Høyesterett (The Supreme Court) was established in
1815, in accordance with the Constitution, having previously been situated in
Denmark.

There are three ordinary judicial authorities within the
Norwegian court system:

County Court as court of the first
instance (District Courts, City Courts)

If a case is of grave nature it may be referred directly to
the High Court. In addition, special tribunals have the authority to settle specific
problems, e.g. land questions (Land Apportionment Court), labour disputes
(Labour Disputes Court), and social security disputes (National Insurance Court). However,
there are very few such courts, and they all have very limited jurisdiction.

The courts only started acting as lawmakers at the end of
the 19th century, exercising constitutional review on statutory law as well as
developing custom law.

In 1915 Domstolsloven (Act relating to the courts of justice
(chapter 11 and 12 in English)) was passed requiring the Supreme Court to
publish reports of its decisions, including arguments and how they voted. These
reports are considerably briefer than what is common in Germany and especially
in USA. Another act was passed in 1926 (Plenumsloven, The Plenary Act) allowing for a plenary session
if two or more Supreme Court judges believe they might rule in conflict with
existing case law. This is one of the major reasons why Supreme Court's
decisions have such a substantial legislative effect.

1.3 The Norwegian Hierarchy of Legal Norms

Norway is a unitary state, as opposed to a federation. In
spite of The EEA Agreement, the Norwegian legal system can still be regarded as
a hierarchical unit of norms.

The Constitution of 17th of May 1814 is
the apex of Norwegian law. Statute law is adapted pursuant to the Constitution
and is consequently subordinate to the Constitution according to the "Lex
Superior" principle. Regulations adapted pursuant to a statute law are
subordinate to such law. §17 of the Constitution explicitly give statutory law
higher rank than provisional laws.

All the above mentioned titles are published in Norwegian
only. Only a few minor publications and articles about Norwegian law have been
published in English. One of the most recent articles describing the central
issues of the Norwegian legal system is Bertnes: an article on Norway,
published in Information sources in law
(1997), edited by Winterton and Moys. Hagelien/Vonen has written: The Norwegian Legal System. An introductory guide
(1994), also published in EFTA Legal System (Hagelien 1993). The
Ministry of Justice has formerly published Administration of justice
(1980). There is also an article in the Modern Legal System Encyclopaedia,
Volume 4B, pp 4.100.3 - 4.100.61 called "The Legal System of
Norway". In addition, several projects are in progress in order to
meet the demands for law literature in English required by foreign students at
The Faculty of Law, UiO.

There are two public periodic publications of
statute law. According to special statute, Norsk Lovtidende (Legal Gazette) must include new
statutory laws and resolutions informing when laws come into force, their
abolition and their scope. Norsk Lovtidende is published twice a
month and is fully up to date on statutory law, regulations, tax resolutions
and so forth. Norsk Lovtidende is divided into two parts: Part 1 contains statutory law and central regulations, while part 2 contains regional and local regulations. Cumulative
quarterly indexes are published in addition to the annual indexes.
Subscriptions are made at Lovdata.

Lover vedtatt på det ... ordentlige storting,
is published at the end of each Parliamentary session (annually). It includes
the formal text of new statute laws in addition to amendments of old laws.

The most comprehensive Norwegian code of law is Norges
Lover, which is published privately by The Faculty of Law in Oslo. It is
issued biennially in one volume, and contains both a systematic and an
alphabetic index. The code contains The Constitution of 1814, and presents
statutory laws arranged chronologically according to their date of adoption. A
supplementary volume containing acts passed in the year between publications of
the main editions has been published since 1992.

Amendments to statutory laws and provisions are adopted in
new editions of Norges Lover. They are incorporated in the existing statute
with a footnote referring to the amendment. Norges Lover also contains indexes
of regulations authorised under each statutory provision. Norges Lover
is used by lawyers and judges, and of course also other people who are
interested in Norwegian law.

The annotated edition of Norges Lover was
previously called Karnov. Norsk kommentert lovsamling, now Norsk Lovkommentar, and was
first issued in 1994. It consists of three volumes and contains two indexes: a
chronological index of all statutes in Karnov, and an alphabetical index, based
on the abbreviated titles of the statutes. It also points to the standardized
abbreviations of the separate statutes. The latest paper edition was published
in 2005. Norsk Lovkommentar is also available on CD-Rom and on Internet.
The electronic version is updated six times a year.

Updated pamphlets are issued when required. A selection of
prominent Norwegian authors, scientists, solicitors, judges and lawyers have
all contributed to this project. The Norwegian edition is modelled on the
Danish Karnov commentary issue, which has been published since the 1930's. The
commentary edition is published bi-annually, and like Norges lover
it is also arranged chronologically, based on the resolution dates of the
statutes.

The text in Norges Lover and Karnov, Norsk lovkommentar, is
supplied by LOVDATA, a semi-official, legal
information database. By agreement with the authorities, LOVDATA receives the
statutes as soon as they have been enacted. Consequently, LOVDATA always
provides an updated electronic version of Norwegian laws. Institutions and
individuals may obtain access to LOVDATA by subscribing. LOVDATA also provides
an internet version free of charge, but this offer is
limited to statutes, regulations in force and recent Court decisions.

Norwegian laws are referred to by title and date. If more
than one law is passed on a specific date, which frequently happens, each law
is also given a number. E.g.: Lov om arv m.m. av 3. mars 1972 nr 5
(Law of inheritance of March 3 1972 no 5). Sometimes an abbreviated title is
used, with or without the date number, e.g. Arveloven av 3. mars 1972 nr
5, (The inheritance law of March 3rd, 1972 no 5), or just Arveloven.
In literature authors often refer to laws using additional abbreviations. Arveloven
would then be referred to just as al. The authors usually include
a list of abbreviations in the book. To trace an abbreviation, also use the
index to Norsk lovkommentar or to Lassen 1993.

The Constitution of May 17th 1814, with amendments and
commentaries, exists in English as a title of its own (Andenæs/Wilberg 1987) (The Constitution of Norway : a Commentary
/ by Mads T. Andenæs and Ingeborg Wilberg (1987)). Over the years
a number of statutes have been translated into English; some by The Foreign
Office's department of translations, some by other public offices, and a few by
private organizations. These translations do not have status as public
translations, and they are seldom published as registered printed papers.

In recent years the Faculty of Law Library, University of
Oslo has experienced an increasing demand for translations of Norwegian
legislation. Documents of this kind have been difficult to obtain and there has
been no public agency responsible for maintaining a current collection of
available translations. The Faculty of Law Library therefore decided to
undertake the task of maintaining a database, Translated Norwegian legislation, where translations of
Norwegian legislation (acts and/or regulations) were made accessible to the
public.

Most entries have links to the acts in full text, either as
html, word-files or in PDF-format. Electronic versions are not available for
all acts. For some printed versions there are links to bibliographic records in
BIBSYS.

In addition, many codes cover specific legal areas aimed at
special professions or special educational purposes.

Norwegian Law Titles. Inventory in "Norwegian
Laws" (Norske lovtitler. Fortegnelse over lover trykt i
Norges Lover) 1685-1993 (Strømø 1994) is primarily addressed to
Norwegian libraries. It contains a chronological survey of laws with full
titles and Dewey library classification numbers, systematically arranged and
including an index of abbreviated law titles.

Forskrifter (regulations) are rules issued by the central
administration under powers given to them in Acts of Parliament. They are
published continuously by LOVDATA in Norsk Lovtidende, which contains several comprehensive
indexes. LOVDATA is always up to date on all regulations in force, but
availability depends on user access. The five latest publications of Norsk
Lovtidende are available on the LOVDATA home page. A regulation is
referred to by title and date of enactment.

A selection of special periodicals is also published, e.g. Konkurranse
published by Konkurransetilsynet (The Norwegian
Competition Authority). In 1994 Konkurransetilsynet published Konkurranseregler
for foretak i EØS. Regelsamling (Competition Rules for Enterprises
within the European Economic Area. Collection of Rules). It contains extracts
of the EEA Agreement and its protocols, as
well as current regulations within competition law. The last printed version of
Regulations in Norway (Norges forskrifter) (2nd ed. 1989) is a
collection of regulations compiled in nine volumes and consists of all valid
regulations made by the 17 ministries. Special collections containing laws,
regulations and circulars within limited legal fields also exist.

Acts of law are organized according to their date of
enactment, not when they entered into force. The main provisions are often old,
but amendments are usually integrated in the existing statutes. The Storting
only passes completely new Acts abolishing the old law when comprehensive and
fundamental changes are made.

In many years Norsk Lovkommentar containing
annotations to different statutes in force was in great use. It has also been
common practice to publish special commentary books on important acts. These
special editions have often been more in detail than Norsk Lovkommentar. In the late
years, we have got the netbased oppslags- og referanseverk in law (also called
Norsk
Lovkommentar) , which contains all Norwegian laws with commentaries.
230 renowned judges and legal scholars are contributors. You can get printed
versions of the whole or a special selected law with commentaries.

Norges traktater (Norwegian treaties) (1967-88)
is the main source of International treaties ratified by Norway. It is
published in five volumes, the last volume containing the ever important index.
The collection contains most of the treaty texts organised chronologically in
both Norwegian and language of origin, whether English, German or French.

Overenskomster med fremmede stater (Treaties with
foreign governments) (1883) is a continous publication of the
International treaties and sets of rules Norway participate in.

Important treaties are occasionally collected and issued,
e.g. for students' purposes: Folkerettslige tekster: samling med opplysninger
til studiebruk (1995) (Texts pertaining to International law: a collection of
information for use during studies) by Erik Møse is such a collection.

Case law is an important source in Norwegian law, in
particular the judgments of Høyesterett which all are
published in Norsk Retstidende, 1836-. This collection is
considered the official minutes of The Norwegian Supreme Court. Most of the
court decisions are reported in full, and in the case of dissenting votes, the
arguments of the minority are also published.

Furthermore, the report contains extracts of decisions made
by the Supreme Court's Committee on Appeals. The
Norwegian Bar Association edits Norsk Retstidende (abbr. Rt) in
cooperation with the Supreme Court which also contains head note summaries, as
well as annual and 5 year indexes. (The editor, currently Pål A. Bertnes, makes a head note summary for each published
verdict and is responsible for making annual and 5 year indexes to the
collection of reports.) These contain keywords, systematic and alphabetic
indexes with references to the headings, a list of statutes and a list of names
for civil law cases. Decisions are referred to by year of publication and the
designated page number: e.g.: Rt 1994 s. 1063 (s is abbr. for
"page").

Each decision is assigned a reference number (to the above
mentioned decision: ref. no 113 B/1994), and these are also used in some
connections.

A selection of decisions by subordinate courts; the District
Courts, City Courts and High Courts, is published in Rettens Gang
(1933 -), (abbr. RG) and published by The
Norwegian Bar Association. The Editor decides which cases have
sufficiently broad and fundamental interest to be included in the collection,
and also performs the task of making the headings and indexes (as described
above). A reference to RG may look like this: RG 1994 s. 334. In
literature, the name of the court, is often mentioned, alternatively its
abbreviation, in addition to the reference to RG year and page.

The two law reports mentioned are both published in installments
approximately twice a month. For unpublished legal decisions, contact the Court
in question stating the date and case number. A copy of the decision will be
issued against a fee.

Other sources are also available:

The Reference Book on Law, Juridisk oppslagsbok
(Bertnes et al. 1997) contains relevant key words to find references to
various sources, including reference to decisions published in Rt and RG.

Lov og Dom, published in three
volumes, is a separate reference tool for references to reported
decisions. To search, look up a current statute provision and see which
decisions refer to it. The references to Rt. and RG are given.

Legal literature usually contains a separate index of
decisions. It is possible to look up various aspects of the legal
decisions in law literature with the help of separate indexes of decisions
at the back of the books.

The electronic database LOVDATA
contains Supreme Court rulings in full text from 1945 as well as headings
of the lower court decisions published in RG. Decisions made by courts of
first instance after 1989 are also available in full text through this
database, but only recent decisions are available on the free Internet
edition of LOVDATA.

Nordisk Domssamling (Nordic Court
Report) (1958-1999) contains selected decisions from the Nordic countries.
This special report is discontinued as from 1999, and decisions and
rulings are now being published in Tidsskrift for rettsvitenskap.

All of these collections have annual and cumulative indexes.
Many publishers also edit case books of selected decisions within limited legal
areas, partly to be used for educational purposes at the universities, partly
intended for practitioners. These reports are all in Norwegian only.

The practice of public administrative agencies is often
referred to and relied on by the Courts. This applies especially to tax
legislation, and Decisions and rulings etc in tax issues (Dommer, uttalelser m.v. i skattesaker og
skattespørsmål) (1922-) is an important collection. The Ombudsman's annual report is
another publication on public administrative practice. It appears annually as
Document no 4 in volume 5 of Stortingsforhandlingene.

Laws and rules include
laws, regulations, guidelines, etc. related to the Ministry’s areas of
responsibility.

Circulars, information from the Ministry to affected
parties about interpretations of laws and regulations.

Hearings, proposals that the Ministry send to affected
parties (public and private institutions, organizations and other
ministries). The purpose is to evaluate economic and administrative
consequences of public measures.

Norwegian Official Reports are made by committees and work
groups appointed by the Ministry.

Reports and plans are usually
made by external researchers or a committee, and include reports, analysis and
surveys delivered to the Ministry.

The custom of private parties is of less importance today
than before. Usage is, however, still an important source of law within certain
areas, e.g. within commercial law other than contract law and in relation to
usufruct. Some of the private conflict solving bodies publishes their decisions.
Amongst these are "Avkortningsnemnda" (The Board
concerned with the reduction of insurance), "Forsikringsskadenemnda" (Committee
of Insurance Damages) and "Bankklagenemnda" (The Board of
complaints for consumers in banking and finance matters). Decisions made by
these three committees are also published electronically by LOVDATA, as are reports by several other organizations.

LOVDATA is an independent private foundation,
established in 1981 by the Ministry of Justice and the Faculty of Law at the
University of Osloand cooperates with the public authorities in
making a Norwegian legal information system available on line. The free based
edition of LOVDATA contains several online
information systems. Lovdata itself covers all updating expenses. In recent
years Lovdata has covered all expenses in connection with establishing new
databases.

Lovdata's main activities are:

The operation of the Web-site with legal information

The operation of an online Legal information service

Publication of The Legal Gazette and the
production of the text for Norwegian statutes in force, Norway
Treaty Series and many other publications containing laws and
regulations.

Development of software in connection with maintaining and
running large databases.

Norsk Lovkommentar (earlier Karnov:
norsk kommentert lovsamling) contains all Norwegian laws with commentaries and
with possibilities to links directly to sited court decision and other laws
that are quoted. 230 renowned judges and legal scholars are contributors. You
can get printed versions of the whole or a special selected law with
commentaries.

Law librarians at the law faculties of the universities in
Oslo, Bergen, and Tromsø have created Juridisk Nettviser, an Internet gateway
to online legal information. This tool, available at juridisk.net/,
facilitates access to Norwegian, foreign, and international legal sources that
are available on the Internet. Links to Norwegian sources are organized in the
following categories: Constitutional Documents, Laws and regulations,
Departmental circulars and other regulations, Preparatory works, Case law,
Other practice, Commentary. Each category provides descriptions of works found
in a variety of databases, including Lovdata, Stortinget, and ODIN.

When interpreting a law, its history and background may
often be of useful help. Preparatory works have particular importance when
interpreting new laws or areas of law where there is limited legal practice.

As regards preparatory work for regulations, the different
ministries file notres and documents, but these are seldom of any importance.

Usually the legislative process is initiated either by the
Government or one of the political parties represented in Parliament. If an
important law, an expert committee is appointed to consider its necessity and
to make suggestions to its contents. Committee reports are usually published as
NOUs(on line yearly from
1994, and a few from earlier year) in the publication series Norges offentlig utredninger (1972
- ). Cumulative indexes are published regularly. Innstillinger og betenkninger
(1935-72) was made prior to the NOU series. Indexes to all NOUs and
reports since 1814 are found in a special microfilm edition called Norske utredninger 1814-1991
(1992).

The next stage is the hearing; the committee report is
circulated among relevant national bodies and institutions that submit their
opinions on the matter. Then the responsible ministry prepares a bill which the
Government submits to the Odelsting as a proposition, called Odelstingsproposisjon
(proposition to the Odelsting, abbr: Ot.prp.) which is the basis
for debates in the Storting. The Odelstingsproposisjon and the
documents containing the minutes of Storting debates are published in Stortingsforhandlinger, a
comprehensive parliamentary series issued in 9 volumes. It also contains white
papers and government documents.

The preparatory documents of Norwegian acts are assembled in
Forarbeid til lovene. This
publication contains all Storting documents about the Bill at the time of its
enactment. It contains Odelstingsproposisjoner
(Ot.prp.), recommendations to the Odelsting, debates of the Odelsting
and Lagting, in addition to previous preparatory work which today
mainly consists of NOUs.

When a statute is published in Norsk Lovtidende, references
are made to relevant preparatory work.

5.5 Reference Work

Unlike many other countries, no collective work of Norwegian
legal sources exists. The most comprehensive work is Norsk
lovkommentar described above. It contains statute laws
with annotations, in addition to links to referred case law.

The Reference Book on Law, Juridisk oppslagsbok, is
published in one volume: part I: Civil law, and part II: Administrative law,
both edited by Pål A. Bertnes (1997). The references
are arranged alphabetically by keywords and sub keywords and provide references
to literature, books and papers, statutes and case law. Juridisk
oppslagsbok does not deal with criminal law, tax law, constitutional law
or procedure law.

The Norwegian National Bibliography, Norsk bokfortegnelse, is the most comprehensive
bibliographic tool from 1814 onwards (Universitetsbiblioteket i Oslo,
1870-1997, Nasjonalbiblioteket 1997 – last Year 2002). The databases of
the Norwegian National Bibliography Norbok contain references to Norwegian books, journals, maps,
dissertations, audio, sheet music, online and offline resources. The databases
cover various periods from 1921 onwards. CD-ROM is available for the period
1941-2000.

Norwegian Union Catalogue of Monographs Sambok containing 3.685.000 references to books,
theses, audio, video and online resources held in app. 400 Norwegian libraries.
About one half of the included material is printed after 1983. Available on
CD-ROM 1939-2000.

BIBSYS Library and Information Systems
offers services to all Norwegian University Libraries, the National Library,
all college libraries and a number of research libraries.

The BIBSYS Library Database is the
union catalogue of the above-mentioned libraries and contains bibliographic
information of their holding: books, periodicals, maps, music as well as
electronic resources such as e-journals and e-books (about 3.5 million records,
9 million copies).

BIBSYS Ask is the open access catalogue
that allows users to search for documents in the following databases:

The BIBSYS Library Database- all
holdings or holdings of one of the libraries, i.g. UBO. Det juridiske fakultetsbibliotek
(the Faculty of Law library of the University of Oslo)

BIBSYS ForskDok database contains
information about Research & Development (R&D) projects, publications
and other R&D-results from Norwegian research institutions.

BIBSYS Emneportal , different subject
gateways.
Users with a patron ID may order loan or copies of documents. Logged on users
may access their personal user information, renew loans and schedule searches
to be performed on specific dates.

Frida is the system used by the
Norwegian universities for research documentation. Frida consists of one module
for research results, and a register over the researchers’ competence.

Only one general Norwegian law bibliography exists, and it
covers the period 1962-1966: Haukaas, Kaare (1967) Norsk juridisk Litteratur
1962-1966. Oslo, Universitetsforlaget. The Faculty of Law Library in Oslo is
currently working on a bibliography covering the years after 1966. As frequent
users of Nordic law literature we have always envied Sweden, Finland and
especially Denmark their bibliographic publications within the field of law.
However, some smaller special bibliographies exist: Norwegian legal publications in English, French
and German up to 1965, (Haukaas 1966) with a supplementary
volume for the period 1966 -1977 (Haukaas 1977).

International journal of legal information
is a bibliography of Nordic legal literature written in English, German, French
and Italian languages 1982 – 1992 (Haider 1993) and it is available
online for member libraries.

In most festschrifts, one finds a bibliography of the person
to whom the festschrift is dedicated. Because most festschrifts are about well
known legal researchers, and the festschrifts are published at the end of their
career, these books are often important access to legal literature.

Kjersti Selberg has published an extensive bibliography on
tax laws covering the period after 1945: Norsk skatterett 1945-1988 (Selberg
1990).

A bibliography of publications made by academic staff at the
Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, was prepared in connection with the
Faculty's 25th anniversary in 1994 (Jacobsen 1994).

BibJure is an electronic library system
developed especially for Norwegian Lawyers and court of justices by
Diagnostica. It contains a database of references to law literature, mainly
Norwegian and Nordic titles, legal articles in series and articles in Nordic
legal Festschriften. Pål A. Bertnes has developed the legal
part of the database; containing a detailed index with a keyword register to
the index. The systematics is used in Norges Lover, Norsk
Retstidende and Rettens Gang.

7. Indexing and Abstracting Services

The National Library was affiliated with the University of
Oslo Library until 1995. It has a selection of Norwegian periodicals, including
the most important legal periodicals. The periodicals are indexed, and the
database Norart is today free of charge. The
literature database of LOVDATA also includes law articles from
Norart. BibJure analyses legal periodicals
seeking to cover all legal articles in Norwegian periodicals, festschrifts and
anthologies. Information about contents in Norwegian legal periodicals are
published periodically in Norsk Retstidende (Rt).

All of the Norwegian legal publications issue annual
indexes. The most important publications also issue general indexes, which are
cumulated over long periods (see below). As to the collections of case law in
Rt and RG, cumulated 5 year indexes are issued besides the annual ones. The
Faculty of Law Library is involved in several bibliographic projects.

The Norwegian Bar Association publishes
Advokatbladet with information about lawyers and
short articles about recent legislation and case law. It also contains a
separate section of news about legal sources.

The other important association of Norwegian lawyers, Norges
Juristforbund (Norwegian Association of Lawyers), publishes Juristkontakt and is
available online. Besides information about the association itself, the journal
also consists of relatively short scholarly articles. Both publications are
issued monthly, and are up to date.

Law journals (printed versions and the 12 first mentioned
also in full text in IDUN, a pay-database from
Universitetsforlaget, Aschehoug og Gyldendal Akademisk):

Arbeidsrett articles in Labour law

Jussens Venner different subjects of special
interest for law students

Lov og rett(LoR) publishes articles
within all fields of law. The authors are mostly jurists in academic
positions, lawyers or judges.

Tidsskrift for forretningsjuscontains
especially articles on contract law and company law.

Tidsskrift for rettsvitenskap (abbr. TfR, a Nordic
publication issued in Norway) is considered more academic than other
journals. In TfR one may find long scholarly theses as well as reviews of
Nordic legal literature.

Tidsskrift for strafferett contains articles and
reports on sentences from criminal law.

The separate Faculties of Law at the universities of Oslo,
Bergen and Tromsø all issue separate monograph series.

The main supplier of statistics in Norway is the public
institution Statistics Norway, which publishes weekly, monthly and annual
statistics within most areas of society, including law and legal institutions,
education, trade and business. The statistics are written in both Norwegian and
English. The institution also publishes the annual series Statistical
Yearbook of Norway containing updated information about the
Norwegian society. Both contents and detailed index are written in English and
Norwegian. (The institution has issued a separate Guide to Norwegian
Statistics.) All public institutions are obliged to supply Statistics
Norway with statistics. Some information is also available in German,
French
and Spanish.

9. The Faculty of Law Library at the University of Oslo

The Faculty of Law Library (UJUR) is a
section of the University of Oslo Library (UBO) and consists of the Main Library, the Learning Centre and seven Institute Libraries. It is the largest of the three Norwegian
University Law Libraries. Students and external users that would like to use
the collections of the Institute Libraries are asked to address themselves to
the Main Library. The Library has a permanent staff
of 20, of which 17 are librarians. In addition to the head of the library, two
of the librarians have a law degree. Besides the permanent staff the library
engages about 15 law students.

9.1 The Library Collections

The collections of all the libraries are regarded as one, in
spite of decentralized book arrangements. Responsibility for the acquisition of
literature is divided between the Institute Libraries and the Main Library.

The Library aims at having a complete collection of all
Norwegian and important Scandinavian legal literature as well as relevant legal
literature from other European countries, EU and USA. The Library also procures
literature from related fields such as legal history, philosophy of law,
sociology of law, political science and criminology.

Library holdings:

Printed volumes appr. 300,000

Journals in printed and electronic editions: appr. 2700
subscriptions

Legal databases: appr. 70

The books (monographs) are arranged systematically, by
subject. The classification scheme used is called an L-scheme.
It is a numerical system, each number representing a subject area. The most
general subjects are given the lowest classification numbers, e.g.
jurisprudence is classified from 1 to 107, while private law has numbers from
108 to 637, public law from 638 to 1127 and so forth. The L-scheme serves the
purpose of classifying and shelving documents according to subject.

The collections are registered in the BIBSYS Library database (Union catalogue for Norwegian
University Libraries, the National Library, all college libraries and a number
of research libraries). The titles belonging to the Faculty of Law Library are
placed under the heading: UBO. Det juridiske fakultetsbibliotek.

All the libraries have lending collections in addition to
reference collections. Books published prior to 1850 do not circulate. Journals
do not circulate, except for a small collection in the Main Library.

The lending period in the Main library:

Students and external users: 3 weeks

Libraries: 4 weeks

University staff: 12 weeks.

Renewals. Items on which no holds have been placed may be
renewed. Patrons may renew their own items in the database BIBSYS.

The Faculty of law subscribes to a number of databases, some
have open access, others are accessed faculty or university workstations. Most
of them are available for walk-in users, as well as students and staff.

The database collection is available in the library’s
gateway, X-port. The database selection covers
many European National catalogues, all the Scandinavian, British, German and
American union catalogues, their article catalogues and catalogues of legal
sources, in addition to a number of International databases within special
fields such as law, criminology and social sciences.

X-port search service is a gateway to
electronic sources offered at the University of Oslo. These services are
databases, e-journals, e-books, reference works and encyclopedias within all
subject areas. X-port is closely linked to the
linksolver SFX.

Norwegian law gateway (Juridisk
nettviser). The three university law libraries in Norway cooperate in
developing the Norwegian law gateway Juridisk nettviser. It contains a
comprehensive listing of links to law related resources on the Internet,
national as well as international; legal sources, institutions, databases,
electronic journals, starting points etc. The gateway exists in full in Norwegian,
as well as in a somewhat briefer English edition. The work is never
finished; the editors are continuously adjusting the gateway to the reality at
the Internet.

9.4 The Main Library

The Main Library is situated in Domus Bibliotheca, the west wing building of
Universitetsplassen, and is the largest of the library units. The holdings aim
at serving students and external users as well as faculty members. Emphasis is
therefore placed on:

The Learning Centre is situated in
Domus Nova. The Centre offers ordinary reading room facilities, computer work
stations and well equipped group rooms. There is a collection for circulation
as well as a reference collection of course books, important Norwegian
periodicals and court decisions. The circulation collection is primarily aimed
at first and second year law students.

Visitors may contact the circulation desk if
they need a course in English or French on how to use the library or find legal
sources.

9.7 The Institute Libraries

The Institute Libraries are located at the different
institutes of the Faculty of Law. These libraries aim at representing in depth
coverage of the legal fields of the institute, and are primarily available for
researchers. Students and external users should make inquires at the Main Library.

The primary goal of the Law Library and its staff is to provide library services to
the students and the staff of the Faculty
of Law. The library service also extends to attorneys and other law
professionals in the Bergen and West Coast area - along with foreign guests and
visitors. The library is situated in the middle of the faculty building and is
easy to reach. The library staff consists of lawyers, librarians, clerks and
law students.

The Law Library, including the European Documentation
Centre, has a collection of close to 100.000 volumes and subscribes to more
than 850 different law journals and law reports - national, Scandinavian and
international and access to more than 2000 electronic journals.

The collection is located at one floor level (some minor
exceptions). The library procures all relevant Scandinavian legal literature,
as well as books, journals and reports in foreign languages from other
countries in Europe, from EU, and from the US.

The University of Tromsø Library is a public funded research
library established in 1969. The section for law is part of the Humanities division
of Tromsø
University Library and is located as a subject library together with
psycology under the the name of PJ-library at the University campus. The main
purpose of the library is to serve students and researchers at Tromsø
University, but others desiring the services of the library in their personal
research, academic studies or related projects may be granted lending cards.

Approximately 12,000 titles of law are on display. The Law
Library collection is divided into four levels, with the main collection on the
3rd level.

12.1 The Faculty of Law
Library at the University of Oslo

Pål A. Bertnes has a law degree from
the University of Oslo and is head librarian and administrative and
professional manager at the Faculty of Law Library, Oslo. He is also an author,
editor and publisher of books and articles, as
well as a lecturer. The use of electronic resources at the Law Library has
become increasingly important, in particular with the recent technological
development. Pål A. Bertnes has constructed the electronic library reference
system BibJure, co-edits the gateway to law, Juridisk
nettviser, and was appointed Editor of Norsk Retstidende (publishing
decisions from Supreme Court of Norway) in the spring 2001.

12.2 The Faculty of Law Library at the University
of Bergen

Halvor Kongshavn has a degree in law
and criminology from the University of Oslo, and has been head librarian at the
Faculty of Law Library in Bergen since 1992. He is also an author, edits the Library's home page, and is co-editor of Juridisk
nettviser and a member of the BIBSYS editorial staff as well as
lecturing about the doctrine of sources of law and writing articles.

Innovasjon Norge (Innovation Norway)
has replaced the following four organisations: The Norwegian Tourist Board, the
Norwegian Trade Council, the The Norwegian Industrial and Regional Development
Fund, SND and the Government Consultative Office for Inventors, SVO

Aarbakke, Magnus and Helgesen, Jan (1982) Sources of law in
Norway. In The sources of law. A comparative study. National systems of
sources of law, ed. by Chantal Kourilsky, Attila Rácz and Heinz
Schäffer, pp.189-225. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó

Haider, Inger Erikson (1993) Recent Legal Developments in the
Nordic Countries. A selected bibliography of works written in English, German,
French and Italian, 1982-1992. International Journal of Legal
Information, 21, 33-64